


Don't you understand?

by OtteryStCatchpole



Category: Draco Malfoy - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26305453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtteryStCatchpole/pseuds/OtteryStCatchpole
Summary: After Voldemort's defeat, Draco Malfoy didn't feel he could stay in the wizarding world. Knowing what his family did, what he did, having to carry around those memories and the family reputation forever was too much to bear. He needed a fresh start, where no one would know him or what he'd done. There was only one place he could think which would give him such anonymity - the muggle world.tldr Draco opens a bookstore in the muggle world to escape his past and ends up falling in love.Very much soft boi Draco in this, lowkey more Tom Felton than Draco
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 12





	Don't you understand?

Everything was quiet now. Draco lay amongst the grass, pushing his fingers over flimsy blades of green beneath him, eyes unfocused and staring at the greyish blue sky above, off white clouds floating past, a low hum filling the otherwise silent air. Voldemort had been dead 5 months, the wizarding world finally starting to rebuild itself from the devastation. The death eaters who had survived were dispearsed across the globe, deep in hiding. He was safe. His eyes dropped closed and suddenly Charity Burbage was before him, being tortured, dropping dead on his table. The table he'd eaten dinner on each night as a child. Hermione Granger was on the floor, screaming in pain. Lifeless bodies of his teachers lay amongst rubble in the Hogwarts courtyard. Then his eyes opened, and they were gone again, squashed back into the box they'd managed to come from, and it was just Draco and the sky. He'd tried to go back, but everywhere he went it felt like there was a heavy hand on his chest, pushing down, determined to stop him from breathing. His forearm would burn on occassion, not from magic, but from memory. The faded scar was now covered by a block tattoo of black ink, but he could still feel it, almost like it was writhing under his skin, willing itself to be seen again. He knew he would need to go back eventually, face everything he and his family had done. The world would keep turning no matter how many times he wished for it to stop. Then the idea came to him; there was somewhere he could go, somewhere that knew nothing of Voldemort or death eaters, not even magic. The muggle world. Part of him cringed, told him even thinking about associating with muggles made him pathetic, unworthy, a traitor. No matter how strongly he would now disagree with that, how disgusted he was by what those beliefs had led to, the thoughts would invade his head alonside a wave of guilt and regret.

But it made sense. There would be no reminders of what happened, no one looking at him as if he was the death eater that murdered their family, no one so much as mentioning magic as a realistic concept. It was perfect. He emptied his vault that night, pouring all of his energy into feeling dumb, into not crying everytime something reminded him of what happened. He wanted to forget, but forgetting would be a betrayal to all those that he'd hurt. He deserved to feel guilt for what he did, for what happened to so many innocent people. Those people deserved to be remembered and what happened to them respected. Navigating the muggle world wasn't easy. His lifestyle hadn't exactly lent himself to knowing anything about it or even knowing anyone would may know about it. Theoretically he could've tried to reach out to an old classmate, but aside from his pride and guilt getting in the way, he didn't want anyone knowing. It had to be completely fresh. He'd never had so many people look at him bizzarely or talk to him as if he was stupid as he experienced in the first couple of months in the muggle world. This must've been what muggleborns felt like entering the wizarding world, except so much worse. They had this treatment as children, and on top of it they likely found out in a less than pleasant way that families such as his own saw them as lesser. At least Draco would never have to experience being treated as lesser, because no knew. He didn't exactly have any transferable qualifications or skills to the traditional jobs muggles seemed to have. He found himself waiting tables at first, a highly humbling experience in his opinion, before investing his money into a bookstore. He'd loved books growing up, but never considered opening a store himself. He didn't realise muggles had bookstore, although in retrospect it was a stupid thing not to realise. It turns out muggles knew about magic, just not real magic. They had created worlds upon worlds with different kinds of magic in them and it enthralled him. He loved seeing what they came up with, the stories they told through it, laughing at what they would see as beyond the realms of possibility that were considered mundane in his world. He named the store Phoenix, the one and only connection to the wizarding world, a tribute to the Order of the Phoenix. The bookstore was a small, cozy, quaint building tucked away on a random street, surrounded by other busy stores. He would spend his days sitting by the till, watching muggles walk past, wondering how they spent their days, asking himself what 'mundane' things filled their lives that he'd yet to encounter. When he wasn't watching muggles, he was deep in a book, pretending to be part of an entirely new world. Customers weren't very frequent, but enough to get him by. One or two people would come in regularly and he'd make them a cup of tea, talking about their lives, trying his best to seem as if it wasn't all new to him. Dave the accountant took milk no sugar, enjoyed historical fiction and had a dog named Lola. He was enthralled when Draco would talk to him about his familiy coming over with William the Conquerer, being gifted land from the king himself.

"What're you doing living above a small book store by yourself when you have a family like that?" He would ask. Draco wasn't sure how to ever answer. He couldn't exactly tell him the real reasons, so always dismissed it with vague excuses, 'It's really not all that when you live it your entire life'.

"I get ya, I'm not in love with my family either, but wow" He would say. "Have you ever considered adding a small cafe? Can't get better than sitting in a bookstore with a cuppa and a biscuit". As soon as he left Draco had to pull out a dictionary, looking up unfamiliar words. There was meant to be a quicker way, phones and computers and the internet, but it was so beyond anything Draco grew up with, and anytime he tried to use the infernal things it went wrong. He didn't need them so he didn't use them.

The next week when Dave came in, he was pleased to see Draco had indeed added a small cafe. A table had been put next to the window by the door, opposite the tills, with a singular chair, and two more small round tables stood just outside the shop. He would sell tea, coffee, hot chocolate and small cookies or cakes. "It's brilliant" He beamed, "going to get you so many new customers that".

Another regular was Vicky, an English student at the local university. She wasn't a particularly chatty person, Draco didn't know much about her, but he knew she loved a crime novel. He made sure to order new ones in for her, placing them by the window so she knew they were in. Then there was Arthur, a rather frail and old man. He took coffee, black, and it always made Draco laugh. He would speak as if he was in his 20's still, and Draco ended up buying an old armchair so Arthur could sit in the store comfortably and read rather than uncomfortably be hunched on a stool.

"Are you going to hire anyone to work the cafe for you?" Arthur asked, placing down a book about the Scottish Highlands on the counter for Draco to ring up.

"Well hiring someone is a lot of work Arthur" he spoke with a smile, always cheery to his customers, "Don't think I can handle it all eh?" he teased.

"A young lad like you needs more company than just books"

"£8.99 Arthur" He said as Arthur pulled out his wallet, counting the coins out in his slightly shaky palm, "I quite like the time by myself"

"Well if you change your mind" He handed Draco over the exact change, as he always did, "I have a granddaughter looking for work. Hardworker, lovely smile" He raised his eyebrow slightly and Draco wasn't sure how to respond. Was Arthur trying to set him up?

"Feeling cheeky today eh?" Draco smiled, shaking his head and handed Arthur his book and receipt, "I'll be alright, thank you Arthur"

**

"Erm, hi" A woman who looked to be in her early 20's stood opposite the counter to Draco, drawing his attention away from the book he'd been reading about some mage in a far off land.

"Hello love, what can I do for you?" He smiled, folding his page corner over to mark his place and set the book down.

"My grandfather told me to come in and ask about the cafe position? His name's Arthur?" She seemed quite reserved, almost unsure of herself.

"The cheeky buggar" Draco couldn't stop the smile coming to his face, he had to admire Arthur's resilience, "sorry for my language darling. Yeah I know Arthur. Have you got any experience in cafes?" He didn't want to embarrass her by saying there was no job.

"I worked in my local Costa when I was 16, but not since then"

"Alright.." He paused, "Sorry, Arthur never told me your name?"

"Lucy" She smiled.

"Lucy! Wonderful. What's your favourite book Lucy?"

Draco lost track of how long they were talking. She had just finished archeology at university but had no idea what she wanted to do now so was looking for part-time work after moving home. She loved fantasy and magic books like Draco, had a scar on her right shoulder from when she'd fallen out of a tree, would take hot chocolate over tea or coffee, had 2 cats named pish and posh, strongly believed it should be pronounced scone over scon and her favourite cookie was chocolate chip.

"I'll see you for your first shift tomorrow then Lucy" He set his cup of tea aside, stretching his arms out, feeling cramped from being sat so long.

"Thank you so much Mr Malfoy" Draco cringed at that. Malfoy was his father's name. He really should've changed it.

"Oh god don't say that, makes me sound old, Draco is fine"

"Draco" She smiled, "so your parents named you dragon?"

"Don't get me started" He shook his head, picking up his book. She laughed, gave her goodbye and left. Maybe company wouldn't be so bad.

He closed the shop up a few hours later, pulling the blinds down over the windows before heading upstairs to his apartment. He flicked the kettle on, as tradition when he got in from work, preparing himself a cup of tea as if he hadn't had multiple ones through the day. Milk and two sugars with a biscuit to dunk - he always had had a sweet tooth. He spent the evening watching TV, a piece of technology that Draco hadn't found too complicated but did find highly entertaining. The world darkened around him but he stayed up, a small lamp casting a yellow glow around his living room, reflecting off from his glasses, soaking into the plants decorating the room. Night time was the worst time for Draco. He still struggled to sleep well, often staying awake until he passed out and then waking up covered in sweat. Sometimes he caught himself in the mirror, and as much as moving to the muggle world had helped his day to day, he still looked a shell of what he once was. Dark circles pulled on his eyes, a scraggly beard covering the bottom half of his face, platinum blonde hair grown out more than he ever would've dared to do under his father's influence. Part of him hated how he looked now, but another part was glad he barely resembled his young death eater self. He tried not to look in the mirror for too long, his arm beginning to itch if his thoughts dwelled too long on the past. A bowl of cereal and cup of tea later he was opening the shop. He was turning on the tills when Lucy walked in, bag slung over her shoulder. 

"Do I need to clock in or anything?" She asked. Draco had no clue what she meant.

"Er no, don't worry. You can put your bag in the back room" He waited for her to disappear before pulling out his dictionary, flipping through to try and find the phrase. 

"What word are you looking up at" She glanced at her watch, "8:09 in the morning?". Draco closed the dictionary quickly, placing it under the counter, embarrassed to have been caught.

"Never too early to be reading a dictionary" He was thankful she didn't question it more.

"So erm, what do you need me to do?". Draco hadn't thought this far ahead. He really didn't need any help in the shop and there wasn't a delivery of books until next week.

"There's not much to do" He crouched down for a moment, disappearing before popping back up holding a cloth and some polish, "You can go dust the shelves, make sure it's all clean, and offer customers a cup of tea when they come in" 

"Don't you charge for tea?" She took the polish and duster off him, giving a funny look. 

"Not if I'm in a good mood" 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kinda stuck on where to take this now but I wanted to share it still. If you have any ideas pls comment! I know where I want it to end just not how to get there. 
> 
> If you want to continue the story yourself and publish it, or re-write and adjust things, I'm chill w that too but please give credit :)


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